2015 Pop Culture History

Quick Facts from 2015:

• USA Changing Event: On June 26, 2015, The U.S. Supreme Court struck down gay marriage bans as unconstitutional, making the right to same-sex marriage the law of the land in all 50 states.
• The Top Song was Uptown Funk! by Mark Ronson with Bruno Mars
• The Movies to Watch include Inside Out, Ex Machina, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and The Martian
• People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive: David Beckham
• Notable books include: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Humans of New York: Stories by Brandon Stanton
• Japan lifted its 67-year old ban on dancing after midnight.
• There were 3.5 million skydive jumps with only 21 fatalities in 2015. That’s one fatality for every 165,172 skydives.
• The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum displayed Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet for one day only: April 1, 2015
• 1 ounce of gold value: $1,060.00
• 2015 was 11111011111 in binary, making this year a palindrome year. We won’t have another one until 2047 (11111111111) and again in 2049 (100000000001).
• The Funny Late Late Night Host: James Corden
• The Conversation: Is the dress blue and black or white and gold?

Top Ten Baby Names of 2015:
Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Ava, Isabella, Noah, Liam, Mason, Jacob, William

Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols:
Erin Andrews, Hayley Atwell, Elizabeth Banks, Melissa Benoist, Ashley Benson, Julie Benz, Alison Brie, Priyanka Chopra, Emilia Clarke, Lauren Cohan, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Kaley Cuoco, Alexandra Daddario, Brooklyn Decker, Cara Delevingne, Kat Dennings, Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Dormer, Hilary Duff, Gal Gadot, Selena Gomez, Ellie Goulding, Ariana Grande, Gigi Hadid, Lena Headey, Sarah Hyland, Holly Holm, Katie Holmes, Samantha Hoopes, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Kendall Jenner, Scarlett Johansson, Dakota Johnson, Victoria Justice, Ellie Kemper, Jennifer Lawrence, Evangeline Lilly, Blake Lively, Caity Lotz, Demi Lovato, Tatiana Maslany, Katherine McNamara, Maria Menounos, Rose Mciver, AJ Michalka, Olivia Munn, Rachel Nichols, Lupita Nyong’o, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Olsen, Rita Ora, Katy Perry, Emily Ratajkowski, Bar Refaeli, Alexis Ren, Rihanna, Margot Robbie, Ronda Rousey, Zoe Saldana, Nicole Scherzinger, Léa Seydoux, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Ivanka Trump, Melania Trump, Sophie Turner, Kate Upton, Sofia Vergara, Alicia Vikander, Emma Watson, Deborah Ann Woll

“The Quote:”
Sarah Barnes burned down the 5th oldest tree in the world, by setting a fire to see better while she was smoking meth inside the hollow trunk. She was turned in by friends after showing them pictures of the fire and telling them “I can’t believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus.”

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year:
Angela Merkel

Miss America:
Kira Kazantsev

Miss USA:
Olivia Jordan

The Scandals:
In the US, an estimated 1,670 children died from abuse or neglect in 2015. This translates to a rate of 2.25 children per 100,000 children in the general population and an average of nearly five children dying every day from abuse or neglect.

Scientists discovered that Boa Constrictors kill their prey by cutting off their blood supply, not by suffocation like it was originally assumed.

A man called into C-SPAN and began talking about West Philadelphia, and got all the way through the first two stanzas of the Fresh Prince theme song before being cut off

Microbeads, the little abrasive beads found in soap products, were deemed potentially dangerous to oceanic to the environment and banned in the US.

In 2015, it was discovered that a mysterious unknown radio signal first detected in 1998 by Australian astronomers at Parkes Observatory was actually being caused by the microwave in the kitchen of the observatory.

Pop Culture Facts & History:
Among the words added to the dictionary in 2015 were Masshole, twerk, fo’ shizzle, stanky, and Twitterati.

In 2015, more people died trying to take selfies (12) than from shark attacks (8).

Until 2015, more people had stood on the moon (12) than had completed a continuous thru-hike of the Grand Canyon.

Eminem is commended in the 2015 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most words in a hit single, Rap God, totaling 1,560 words in 6 minutes, 4 seconds.

The population of London in 2015 exceeded its 1939 population by only one person.

Researchers built a bot capable of playing classic Atari 2600 games after learning the rules of the game itself. The bot was able to attain a level equivalent to ‘a professional human games tester’.

Foo Fighter’s frontman Dave Grohl broke his leg on stage during a show in Sweden. He returned to the show and finished the concert while sitting in a chair.

US homeownership rates have not changed very much in the last few decades… 2015 and 1967 were the same (63.4%) and it’s never been over 70%.

Oklahoma City once had the most cafeterias per capita and was known as “Cafeteria Capital of the World.” The last cafeteria in OKC closed in 2015.

In 1917, during WWI, Sgt Henry “Black Death” Johnson was wounded 21 times from a German Soldier raid. Racism was still a barrier and was never recognized by the U.S. until 2015, posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor. He was the first American in WWI to be awarded the Croix De Guerre by France.

Cost of a 30 second Super Bowl ad: 4.5 Million dollars

Doomsday Clock:
3 minutes to midnight, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
2015: “Unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity, and world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures of political leadership endanger every person on Earth.” Despite some modestly positive developments in the climate change arena, current efforts are entirely insufficient to prevent catastrophic warming of Earth. Meanwhile, the United States and Russia have embarked on massive programs to modernize their nuclear triads-thereby undermining existing nuclear weapons treaties. “The clock ticks now at just three minutes to midnight because international leaders are failing to perform their most important duty—ensuring and preserving the health and vitality of human civilization.”

2015 Toys inducted to the National Toy Hall of Fame:
Puppet, Twister, Super Soaker

1st Appearances & 2015’s Most Popular Christmas Gifts, Toys and Presents:
New Nintendo 3DS

Broadway Show – Hamilton (Musical) Opened on August 6, 2015

Oscar Best Film:
Birdman (presented in 2015)

2015 Entries to The National Film Registry:
Being There (released in 1979)
Black and Tan (released in 1929)
Dracula (Spanish language version) (released in 1931)
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (released in 1906)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (released in 1974)
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (released in 1894)
A Fool There Was (released in 1915)
Ghostbusters (released in 1984)
Hail the Conquering Hero (released in 1944)
Humoresque (released in 1920)
Imitation of Life (released in 1959)
The Inner World of Aphasia (released in 1968)
John Henry and the Inky-Poo (released in 1946)
L.A. Confidential (released in 1997)
The Mark of Zorro (released in 1920)
The Old Mill (released in 1937)
Our Daily Bread (released in 1934)
Portrait of Jason (released in 1967)
Seconds (released in 1966)
The Shawshank Redemption (released in 1994)
Sink or Swim (released in 1990)
The Story of Menstruation (released in 1946)
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (released in 1968)
Top Gun (released in 1986)
Winchester ’73 (released in 1950)

The Big Movies: (according to boxofficemojo)
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2. Jurassic World
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron
4. Inside Out
5. Furious 7
6. Minions
7. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
8. The Martian
9. Cinderella
10. Spectre

Sports:
World Series Champions: Kansas City Royals
Super Bowl Champions: New England Patriots
NBA Champions: Golden State Warriors
Stanley Cup Champs: Chicago Blackhawks
US Open Golf: Jordan Spieth
US Tennis: (Men/Ladies): Novak Djokovic/Flavia Pennetta
Wimbledon (Men/Women): Novak Djokovic/Serena Williams
NCAA Football Champions: Alabama
NCAA Basketball Champions: Duke
Kentucky Derby:  American Pharoah (Triple Crown Winner: Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes)